Hong Kong shares rise for 7th day in a row, hit 10-year…

SHANGHAI, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s benchmark stock index rose for the seventh straight session on Thursday, hitting a fresh 10-year high and pacing gains in Asian markets as solid United States and German economic data boosted sentiment. ** At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 175.53 points or 0.57 percent at 30,736.48. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 0.95 percent to 12,203.55. **The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares rose 3.1 percent while the IT sector rose 1.87 percent, the financial sector was 0.47 percent higher and property sector rose 0.48 percent. ** The top gainer on Hang Seng was Wharf Holdings Ltd up 8.7 percent, while the biggest loser was China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd, down 4.06 percent. ** China’s main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.52 percent at 3,386.5043 points while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.44 percent. ** Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.32 percent while Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 3.26 percent. ** The yuan was quoted at 6.4973 per U.S. dollar at 08:14 GMT, 0.05 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.5005. ** The top gainers among H-shares were PetroChina Co Ltd up 4.91 percent, followed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp gaining 4.41 percent and China Construction Bank Corp up by 2.43 percent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd which was down 2.26 percent, China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd which fell 1.6 percent and China Life Insurance Co Ltd down by 1.6 percent. ** About 3.09 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 182.6 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 1.69 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 2.38 billion. ** At close, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 27.43 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 13.93 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.8 percent. ** So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Hang Seng index has risen by 2.16 percent to HK$20.01 trillion. ** The short and one-factor leveraged Hang Seng index, which is designed to replicate the payoff of a short or leveraged portfolio and is linked to the movements of the Hang Seng Index, was lower by 0.57 percent on the day at 4,801.92 points. (Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk)